Appling County Georgia

The Appling County Courthouse is located at 83 South Oak Street, Baxley GA 31513; phone: 912-367-8100.

Named for War of 1812 hero, Colonel Daniel Appling.

Beginnings [1]

Old Holmesville.

It was not until 1874 that Baxley became the county-seat of Appling. For nearly half a: century the official business of the county was transacted at Holmesville, a town whose existence is today only a dim memory of the past. Appling was made a county in 1818 out of treaty lands acquired from the Creeks and was named for Colonel Daniel Appling, a distinguished soldier of the war of 1812. But, due to unsettled conditions on what was then our western border, ten years elapsed before a county-seat was chosen. Finally an Act was approved December 8, 1828, which fixed the site for public buildings on a lot owned by one Solomon Kennedy, said lot having been selected by the judges of the Inferior Court. This was the beginning of Holmesville. Its charter of incorporation as a town was granted in 1854.

Baxley.

But Holmesville was fated. It was not on the iron highway of travel. It was not much of a center for trade, and other communities Were beginning to bristle with the life of a new era. At last a bill was put through the Legislature, approved August 23, 1872, submitting the question of a new county-site to popular vote. Messrs. Seaborn Hall, Gideon H. Hoiton, Allen P. Surrency, Isham Reddish, and James Smith were designated as commissioners to choose a site for public buildings, in the event a majority advocated removal.

As a result, Baxley, a town located on what is now the Southern Railway, was two years later made the new county-seat. Baxley was named for William Baxley, an early pioneer settler in this neighborhood from the State of North Carolina. The town was incorporated by an Act approved February 23, 1875, with Messrs. B. D. Mobley, J. M. Powell, Philip Ketterer, W. W. Beach and J. H. Comas as commissioners. Baxley is today a progressive town, with up-to-date public- utilities. Its schools are among the best, and there is not a community in the State with a finer body of citizens.